Atheist group offers porn in exchange for Bibles

San Antonio
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An atheist student group at the University of Texas in San Antonio held its annual "Smut for Smut" event this month. The group encourages people to trade in their religious texts for pornography.

A student organization calling itself the Atheist Agenda has revived its three-day Smut for Smut campaign this month mostly in hopes of igniting debate concerning the role of religion in society and also to recruit new members.

This year's event was held March 1 to 3.

Members of the group feel that religious texts are as smutty as pornography because they contain violence, torture and even spark religious wars.

As in past years, hundreds of people showed up to cheer, protest or to debate, reports SA News.

Bradley Lewis, 18, a freshman at the school reportedly plans to join the Atheist Agenda. Lewis told SA News, “It's a First Amendment right. If religious groups can put out missionaries and go knock on my door and wake me up at 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning, I can put a table outside of the college.”

A current member of the group told local television news the program was meant as "a slap against religious leaders and the hypocrisy of their condemnations of pornography."

He says, "They've been going and rallying against pornography for the longest time and the disgusting, depraved acts that are within the Bible, Koran and Vedas completely outnumber any faults of any pornographic image."

Opponents have also set up to rally against the event.

Robin Lorkovic, 18, a freshman from Houston stood near the Smut for Smut table with a sign that read, “God Loves You! Keep your Bible and learn from it!”

Lorkovic told SA News, “I don't really feel like that is appropriate at all. I am a Christian. I believe in God's love, and I am here to stand my ground and stand up for what I believe in.”

University officials are defending the event saying it's a matter of free speech.

UTSA spokesman David Gabler told local news, "We are a marketplace of free ideas here at UTSA, and our students have all the constitutional rights afforded to all individuals in the United States."